Musharraf wins re-election

Pakistan's President Musharraf won re-election as president.

Musharraf partnered with formerly exiled political figure Benazir Bhutto, promised to step down as head of the armed services, engineered an exception enabling him to run for another term and weathered an election day challenge to that exception.

ISLAMABAD: According to unofficial results President Pervez Musharraf has won presidential election with heavy majority.

President Musharraf has won presidential polls with clean sweep, state television reported on Saturday.
(The News)

Amazing how an unpopular president can win such a sweeping victory. In spite of my belief that Musharraf is best for Pakistan right now (compared to any likely alternative), I'll be interested to see what election monitors have to say about this election in retrospect.


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Election time in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The polling is being held today (Saturday) for the presidential election at Parliament House and all four provincial assemblies.

President Pervez Musharraf, People’s Party’s candidate Makhdoom Amin Fahim, lawyer’s candidate Justice (retd) Wajihuddin and Faryal Talpur are in the run for the presidential election
(The News)

Looks like Musharraf ironed out his differences with Benazir Bhutto just in time.

I wonder if the elections will be fair?

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan --With their country in turmoil, Pakistani voters are expected within months to go to the polls for the first parliamentary elections here in five years. But as time runs short, independent observers say that the nation is poorly prepared and that the elections will be highly vulnerable to fraud.

The most glaring weakness, they say, is a new voter list that is missing the names of tens of millions of Pakistanis, threatening to seed mass confusion over who is eligible to cast a ballot.
(Washington Post)

A Musharraf win probably is the best course toward a democratic and neighborly Pakistan, though admittedly I'm rather ignorant of the competition Musharraf faces in the election.

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